"Here's my advice-have a little faith, and if that doesn't work, have a lot of mimosas."

Welcome back to Haley’s Beauty Room! I told you I am going to start doing more fitness related posts, so here we are! I ran a poll on Instagram and Facebook, seeing if you all were interested in my weekly workout routine and an overwhelming amount of you were.

I have to preface this by saying that I am not a trained fitness professional. Nor am I a doctor. My routine is based on what my doctor and trainer recommended to me. It is totally customizable and really comes down to personal preference.

This routine also varies from week to week and these exercises don’t happen on the same day every week. This is just a standard weekly workout routine for me!

Basics & Background

To give some basics to this post, I wanted to let you guys know that I try and hit the gym about 5 days a week. Sometimes it’s 4 or 3, and the remaining days I will go for a long walk or do some other type of physical activity.

I never do strenuous physical activity more than 5 days a week. Your body needs to recover. Pushing yourself hard at the gym 6-7 days a week means your body doesn’t have time to recover and you’ll ultimately get burned out faster and not see the results you want.

I also go to the gym after work or in the evenings. During the weekend this time varies whenever I feel like going, but during the work week it is always this time. I do not have enough energy to get up early in the morning and I find I can push myself more after the day is done. Again, this is personal preference and you can choose what works best for you.

When I go to the gym I ALWAYS do strength training first and then finish with cardio. From what I understand, there isn’t a set order you have to do things, but my trainer explained it to me like this. During the first 20 minutes of your workout, you are strictly burning carbs and sugars. The fat burning stage doesn’t start until after that 20 minutes.

Source: Pexels

So, if you’re looking to burn fat and tone, it’s best to burn off those sugars and carbs by weightlifting first and then you can really burn the fat during cardio. Plus, then you don’t have to spend hours on the elliptical or stair climber getting to the fat burning stage.

Since switching to this method, I have seen way better results a lot faster than I used to doing cardio first. I also do my weightlifting in 4 sets with 15 reps in each set. The weight that I use may not be a ton, but I am focusing on muscle endurance versus gains, which usually involves one or two very heavy reps.

This was also recommend to me by my trainer and doing 4 sets of 15 has sped up my results tremendously as well. My trainer also recommends to incorporate some type of ab workout every time you go to the gym.

Now that we have that covered, let’s hit the weekly routine!

Sunday- Rest Day

Sometimes I workout on Sundays, sometimes I don’t. Like I said, it’s all about where it falls in my rotation of exercises and how I am feeling.

Monday- Legs

I hit the week hard with my leg-focused workouts. Whenever leg day comes around I always do the following exercises:

Source: Gym Geek

Weighted Squats

Weighted Lunges

Leg Press

Glutes

Leg Raises-bodyweight

Leg Extension

Leg Curl

Hip Abduction

Hip Adduction

Oblique Side Benders

Cardio-40 minutes on the treadmill in this sequence:

15 minutes HIIT (1 minute running, 1 minute walking)

5 minutes incline walk

15 minutes HIIT

5 minutes incline walk

Tuesday- Push

Push day is typically all about arms and chest, but it’s not totally just that. It is what it’s called, push. So it involves doing exercises with a push motion.

Source: Consumer Health Digest

Bench Press

Pectoral Fly

Skull Crushers

Seated Dip

Box Push Ups

Battle Plank Ropes (plank position while using one arm on the ropes for 20 secs then switch arms)

Converging Shoulder Press

Cardio-25 minutes

10 minute HIIT on the treadmill

15 minute Elliptical

Wednesday- Pull (trainer day)

Same thing for pull, it’s usually arms and back, but it’s exercises that involve a pulling motion. On Wednesdays, I usually see my trainer, Sheldon, and we do exercises based on wherever I am in my routine. This is an example of what I do on “Pull” day.

Yes, I know I incorporate abs during every gym day, but I also have a focused ab day to really give them a workout and give my other muscles a rest.

Source: Excuse Proof

Torso Rotation

Rotary Torso

Abdominal

Medicine Ball Crunches

Dumbbell Russian Twists

Oblique Side Benders

Reverse Crunch

Plank

Cardio-20 minutes

Treadmill HIIT 10 minutes

Stairclimber 10 minutes

Saturday- Circuit Training

Source: Ebylife

1 minute of each exercise for 4 sets:

Weighted Wall Sit

Medicine Ball V-Ups

Battle Ropes

Kettle Bell Throws

Cardio-40 minutes on the treadmill in this sequence:

15 minutes HIIT

5 minutes incline walk

15 minutes HIIT

5 minutes incline walk

As reference, I am pushing myself as hard as I can during every exercise at the gym. You don’t have to spend hours at the gym to see the results you want, you just have to make the time you are there count and make sure you are really working your butt off.

My strength training usually takes between 30-40 minutes and cardio varies from day to day. So max I am at the gym for 1 hour and 40 minutes and minimum I am there for 50 minutes. That may seem like a lot for some people, but if you really want to change your body and improve your health, you have to prioritize the gym and eating healthy.

I used to be so bad about coming up with excuses about why not to go, but once I prioritized this as my lifestyle and planned it in during my day, it got so much easier and now I love going.

I hope my weekly routine helps you out and gives you some ideas! As always, please reach out if you have more questions and leave your comments with recommendations or thoughts down below!